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Overview
Set in the Vermont countryside, Water Witches is a tale of the clash between progress and tradition, science and magic. In the midst of a nightmarish New England drought, cynical ski industry lobbyist Scottie Winston is trying to get a large ski resort the permits it needs to tap already beleaguered rivers for snow. His wife, his little girl, and his sister-in-law — dowsers or "water witches" all — hope to stop him, however, in this gentle, comic, life-affirming novel.
Synopsis
An engaging novel of human dilemmas that find unusual solutions.
Publishers Weekly
In a moving, life-affirming novel suffused with ecological wisdom, a Vermont ski resort's plans for expansion collide with environmentalists seeking to preserve a mountainous wildlife habitat and riverine ecosystem. Narrator Scott Winston, a transplanted New York City lawyer who represents the ski resort, switches allegiance after he and his nine-year-old daughter spot three mountain lions in an area targeted for clearing. Complicating matters is the envy that Scott's pragmatic wife, Laura, a native Vermonter, feels toward her famed sister, Patience Avery, a dowser (water witch) who also opposes the ski resort and whose talent for locating underground springs, missing persons or lost objects with a divining rod figures prominently in the novel's denouement. The struggle between the developers and their opponents culminates in an environmental board hearing that has all the dramatic excitement of a courtroom trial. With wit, insight and mordant irony, Bohjalian (Past the Bleachers) charts Scott's metamorphosis from rationalistic materialist and skeptic to one who believes in higher powers and the interconnectedness of all life. In a refreshing twist, instead of offering a bucolic idyll, the author takes us through a Vermont beset by drought, a declining ski industry, unemployment and endangered ecosystems. (Mar.)
Editorials
From the Publisher
Sally Eckhoff New York Newsday As welcome as rain on a parched garden.Howard Norman National Book Award finalist for The Bird Artist In Chris Bohjalian's wise, splendid book, we hear the echo and avalanche made when centuries collide. One of the most elegantly philosophical, urgent — yet somehow timeless — novels of these perilous times.
Cathie Pelletier author of Beaming Sonny Home A bewitching tale from New England by a writer with a generous heart for his subjects, and respect for a landscape he clearly loves. Chris Bohjalian's voice is as steady and sure as Vermont rain.
Alan Cheuse All Things Considered, National Public Radio I was charmed by the mixture of country lore and planning boards, new age witches and old-fashioned family duties....For anyone interested in the way that we live with the land, on the land, today, this novel makes for a thoughtful evening or two of entertaining reading.
Eileen Pollack The Washington Post Book World Anyone whose family is divided between conservatives and liberals will squirm with recognition....Anyone who has enjoyed the pretension to being an insider in a capital city — be it Montpelier or Washington — will laugh uncomfortably.
Carol McCabe Providence Journal Bohjalian's book is as beautifully made as a Windsor chair, as comforting as a long woodpile in October, and as flavorful as a Northern Spy apple.